The 2007-9 .financial crisis began with increased uncertainty over funding conditions in money markets. We show that funding uncertainty can explain diverse elements of commercial banks behaviour during the crisis, including:(i) reductions in lending volumes, balance sheets, and...

We construct a model to analyse the two types of tender procedures used by the European Central Bank in its open market operations. We assume that the ECB minimizes the expected value of a loss function that depends on the quadratic difference between the interbank rate and a target interest...

This paper presents a simple model of risk-averse banks that face uncertainty over funding conditions in the money market. It shows that increased funding uncertainty: (i) creates risk-based loan-deposit synergies, (ii) often causes banks' lending volumes and their profitability to decline,...

The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the interaction of formal and informal financial markets and their impact on economic activity in quasi-emerging market economies. Using a four-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with asymmetric information in the formal...

We develop a structural cointegrated vector autoregressive (VAR) model with weakly exogenous foreign variables, suitable for a small open economy like South Africa. This type of model is known as an augmented vector error correction model (VECM), referred to by VECX*. We compile the foreign...

We test the concept of the Opportunistic Approach to monetary policy in South Africa post 2000 inflation targeting regime. Our findings support the two features of the opportunistic approach. First, we find that the models that include an intermediate target that reflects the recent history of...

After almost six years with official interest rates at close to zero and with numerous unconventional measures still in place, 2014 is witnessing the beginning of the process of monetary normalisation in those economies, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, in which the recovery...

We explore how the ECB sets interest rates in the context of policy reaction functions. Using both real-time and revised information, we consider linear and nonlinear policy functions in inflation, output and a measure of financial conditions. We find that amongst Taylor rule models, linear and...

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, I study how the proportion of fixed and variable-rate mortgages in an economy can affect the way shocks are propagated. Second, I analyze optimal implementable simple monetary policy rules and the welfare implications of this proportion. I develop and...

We analyze optimal monetary policy in a model with two distinct financial frictions. First, borrowing is subject to collateral constraints. Second, credit flows are intermediated by monopolistically competitive banks, thus giving rise to endogenous lending spreads. We show that, up to a second...